So today I did a little work on the car. My 15 year old sawsall broke so I had to go buy a new one and then the factory bolts won't work. So I made 2 trips to town and basically wasted a lot of time. But all in all I did make some progress.

So I learned the hard way that the support that runs from left to right are offset due to the differences in the type of suspension. So you will see that the drivers side is cut out way to much and I'm going to have to weld it all back in. But when I get done you'll never know.

I have the rear end in place and jack under it holding it up against the car for reference. Hopefully tomorrow I can get 2 14mm 1.5 pitch x 130mm long and then I can have it actually bolt in and supported without the jack. So hopefully if everything goes as planned I will get my bolts and install some tires and have the car sitting back on wheels so I can move it to the other side of the garage so I can get to my welder and start welding in the shock towers.

Youre swapping everything into a 7th gen celica from a st165? Fensport? did that a while back may be able to get some pictures of how they did things if you search around. I like crazy builds look forward to seeing more progress.

fhalperformance wrote:Youre swapping everything into a 7th gen celica from a st165? Fensport? did that a while back may be able to get some pictures of how they did things if you search around. I like crazy builds look forward to seeing more progress.

Yep transport swap. If you had pics of the rear that would be great. I looked and can't find anything but a center pic. Nothingshowing the actual towers, mounts, or sway bar. The rest is pretty straight forward. I'm a full time dad so I only have a every other weekend to build the car. But within 2 months I believe it will drive.

I wish it was that easy. They don't give you any pics that's truly worth while the detailed info gives the best info. I will be posting pictures here shortly. Video is uploading showing the car back on it's wheels with the awd rearend in it!

I'm going to use an acid bath. You can go to a hardware store ask for acid for cleaning brick or concrete and just add that to a spray bottle and you spread over the top of rust and rust should bubble and kind of lift and be able to be wiped off. May take one or two more applications but you'll be able to remove the rust after the rust is removed simply rinse with water let it dry and then told it so won't rust again done. 90% of the rust that's on the car is All Surface from driving down a gravel road so my plans are to spray it clean it primer it and undercoat it.

I have a lot of things ordered including lowering springs. Gotta get the rear end solid...including the alignment, undercoating , sway bar, and the gas tank. Basically gonna finish the rear part of the car and then do the motor.

Finally got another chance to work on the car a little today between the rain storm. Passenger side is done. Drivers is half way there.

I have the 3m edge trim coming. I'll edge out the plastic panel to get rid of my cut lines and make it look more oem.

2 component seam sealer on it's way. Which is basically the same as what the factory uses. It requires a spray gun and is kinda a glue / sealer. I will be coating the fender wheels and dropping the rear end one last time to coat the back half of the body.

After that's done the rear will be going back in and the rear end will be mounted in solid and I'll begin installing the gas tank and the new hardware for the brakes. It's all new.

So far I don't think it's going to bad. Not bad for a back yard red neck.

Today is day 5 getting to work on the car. The shock towers are now 100% welded in and finished. I'm waiting on my new springs which will lower it 1.6 inches. Also the sway bar came in today . So for the most part the installation of the rear end is pretty much done...or at least what I call the hard part. I'm going to make a adjustable plate for my strut bar so I can get it close and hold it still and then I'll put it on a alignment rack and get it perfect and then I'll weld it in place. Probably will do that possibly this weekend.

Oh and more of the trunk has to be cut out for the sway bar about a additional 6 inches. So at this point you'd be half way cut out. I'm cutting it all out and welding it back in flush and then using the ST165 gas tank on the gen 7. I believe I have everything figured out to install the tank and use the factory filling location without having flow issues. But we will see when I get there.

in the mean time everything is back in the car except the drivers rear panel. I just need to cut it out to fit around the new shock tower. But for your viewing here's the current look pretty much back together.

The rear end seems to be very tall and when I jump inside the trunk lol it bounces but it feels like there is a huge weight difference. The ST165 is just so strong the car doesn't make it squat at all. Hoping once I add a fuel tank and a battery to the rear I can add some weight to the rear and it won't be so solid.

Making lots of progress in such short time. I want to see this completed. Did you remove the engine and work on mounts yet? I would have done that before starting with the rear end/subframe and whatnot. Not that it's hard or never been done before. There are some roaming the streets in American and UK. (I think Easter Europe as well). Keep up the good work.

GT4times2 wrote:Making lots of progress in such short time. I want to see this completed. Did you remove the engine and work on mounts yet? I would have done that before starting with the rear end/subframe and whatnot. Not that it's hard or never been done before. There are some roaming the streets in American and UK. (I think Easter Europe as well). Keep up the good work.

All of the 3sgte swaps I have seen have swap the engine and stuck with front-wheel drive. So to me the engine transmission swap was easy it was the rear end would be the hard part. So I decided I would tackle what I consider to be the hard first. Unconfident engine transmission wiring won't be an issue